TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Of the 11 defensive players listed on Pro Football Focus’ SEC Team of the Week, four play for Alabama. Despite the Crimson Tide giving up a season-high 23 points against Colorado State last week, it’s not too surprising to see talented defenders such as Da’Ron Payne, Da’Shawn Hand and Shaun Dion Hamilton make the list. Although, if there is one name that causes heads to turn its former walk-on Levi Wallace.
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The Alabama cornerback received an 89.3 grade from the analytical service after recording a team-high four pass breakups. During the game, Wallace was targeted 16 times and allowed just five receptions, a catch rate of 31.2 percent. To put that into perspective, fellow Alabama cornerback Anthony Averett allowed 10 catches on 16 targets (62.5 percent) while Minkah Fitzpatrick allowed 10 catches on 15 passes (66.7 percent).
Pro Football Focus’ grading system takes into account completion percentage along with several other variables, including proximity of coverage and pass breakups. For example, if a ball was overthrown by a quarterback on a play where a cornerback was clearly beat, the defender would still be graded low. Conversely, if a receiver made a catch in tight coverage the cornerback wouldn’t be punished as severely.
For Wallace last week, not much went wrong either way.
“In Levi’s case in this game, he was actively forcing incompletions," PFF analyst Gordon McGuinness explained. "The bulk of his good grade comes from the fact that he was able to shut down four passes himself and also due to the fact that he didn’t give up much through the air.”
Wallace’s success last week was nothing new. The senior also made the defensive team of the week after he received an 87.8 grade against Florida State in Week 1. In fact, Wallace’s season grade is even higher. He is Alabama’s highest graded cornerback, receiving a grade of 89.5 over three games. Minkah Fitzpatrick comes in with a season grade of 80.5, while three defensive penalties and a couple of long pass plays allowed have dropped Averett’s grade down to 44.8.
McGuinness warns its premature to rush into conclusions so early in the year. He fully expects Averett’s grade to bounce back as the season progresses and noted Fitzpatrick’s high completion percentage is a product of him playing as an inside corner and defending against screen passes. Although, even with such a small sample size, Wallace looks like the real deal.
So far this season, Wallace has made life miserable for opposing quarterbacks. The 6-foot, 180-pound defensive back leads Alabama with five pass deflections and has one of the Tide’s five interceptions on the year. Perhaps more impressively he has limited opposing passers to a 21.1 quarterback rating under the NFL rating system used by PFF.
“I’m always upset when a completion is made on me," Wallace said. "If a team wants to pick on me or any of the DBs, we just want to be ready and be in the position to make the play.”
Lately, it's been statistically more beneficial to throw the ball out of bounds than towards Wallace.
“For a good cornerback in the NFL, I’d say any opposing quarterback rating in 60s and below is good,” McGuinness said. “It's a 39.8 rating if the quarterback dropped back to pass and threw it out of bounds every single play. Anytime you’re below that mark, you’re better than the offense just getting rid of the ball.”
It’s not like Alabama has gone against easy passing attacks either. Last week, Colorado State quarterback Nick Stevens entered the game as the nation’s leader in passing yards. The Rams also featured 6-foot-1, 200-pound receiver Michael Gallup, who McGuinness believes will be a future NFL Draft pick this spring. During last week’s game, Wallace was targeted four times against Gallup, giving up two catches for 29 yards with a pass breakup.
“The pass breakups are great because it’s him actively forcing the incompletion,” McGuinness said. “Against Colorado State, his pass breakups came in coverage against four different guys. He was kind of all over the place covering different guys. It doesn’t seem to matter who he’s up against, he seems to do a pretty impressive job.”
Monday, Wallace said that it took Alabama head coach Nick Saban a while to get his name right during the cornerback’s time as a walk-on. Saban would accidentally refer to Wallace as “Bo Wallace,” a player he used to coach years back.
“But I knew he knew my name because I met with him a couple of months right after I walked on,” Wallace explained with a smile.
There’s no doubt the head coach knows who he is now. If Wallace keeps up at this pace, it’ll be hard for anyone not to know his name.
“We’re really not outside of the possibility that he’ll get an opportunity in the NFL,” McGuinness said. “Alabama guys are always likely to get an opportunity at training camps. The way he started this season, I think he’s going to see a lot of people talk more and more about him.”
